Full press conference — Active shooter situation in Midland

[0:01] Well, in Texas, we want to reach out to you and just make you aware of some things that have occurred this morning. [0:07] Many of you are already aware that we have had an active shooter in our community. [0:11] We want to start off by saying that our thoughts and prayers are absolutely with the victims and with their families, [0:16] with our first responders, with all of the medical staff that are responding this morning. [0:20] This has been a process with a lot of cooperation with a lot of different groups, [0:25] and so we want you to hear us say that our thoughts and prayers are with you. [0:28] We're in strong communication with all of those teams and just want to share some details with you, [0:33] so I'm going to be referencing my notes so that I don't miss anything. [0:36] The first thing is, yes, we did have an active shooter, and we already have a perimeter established. [0:43] The situation is now secured in that area, but we're still asking that all Midlanders stay put. [0:49] If you're in that area, you don't need to be out and driving around or going to try to see anything. [0:54] Officers are containing the situation, and we ask that you respect that perimeter. [0:59] All entities responded on scene, and we have a lot of the partner agencies from the county, [1:04] from other surrounding communities, and we're really thankful for the response that they've also made. [1:10] We also want to let you know that we do have 11 known victims at this time. [1:14] There's at least one victim that is dead on the scene. [1:17] We don't have any other details to disclose at this time, but that's the situation as of right now. [1:24] This is, of course, an ongoing situation, and we don't want to confirm anything or give any other particular details [1:30] before we have a thorough investigation, and so our goal here is to reassure you that we do have strong response [1:36] from our local Midland Police Department as well as our region, [1:39] and that we're going to be continuing to give you updates as we have confirmed details. [1:44] We want you to know that Facebook has had a national outage today. [1:47] Many of you may be aware of that, and we know that a lot of Midlanders do get their news from Facebook, [1:52] and so if you would like the most up-to-date information, we've had success in getting Twitter to transmit that quickly, [1:58] and so you can reference the City of Midland Communication pages on Twitter if you're having trouble with Facebook or Instagram. [2:05] We're going to continue to try to post on all outlets as much as possible. [2:09] The blood bank need is not immediate. [2:12] We've had a conversation as recently as right before this press conference. [2:16] The blood bank need is not immediate, but we know that there may be future needs, [2:19] and so if you have a willingness to go to our local blood banks to give blood, we invite you to do that. [2:26] We would also say that the food and donations, many of our Midland community are going to want to reach out [2:32] and make donations for our first responders and for the families of these victims. [2:37] We ask that you do those things through the United Way so that we have one specific location [2:42] that's disseminating those things and making sure that the needs are addressed. [2:45] They're collaborating with our local food bank, with other different groups to make sure that all of those needs are covered, [2:52] so please direct yourself to United Way. [2:55] We want to also comment that there is a family reunification center that is set up at Midland Memorial Hospital at this time, [3:04] and so if you have questions about one of your loved ones and you want to confirm anything, we would direct you there. [3:09] I'm going to share a phone number, and then we'll also be putting that out on our socials, [3:14] but that phone number for the Family Reunification Center is 432-631-4689. [3:21] Let me say it again. [3:22] It's 432-631-4689. [3:27] If you have questions about someone that you're concerned about in our community, [3:30] then that would be a place where you could go and get more information. [3:33] If you'd like to go to the hospital in person, we would direct you to the chapel at the hospital to be able to get more information. [3:40] You can talk to that Family Reunification Center there at the chapel at the hospital. [3:44] I want to make sure that you understand that this is an all-hands-on deck. [3:48] All of our community responders are participating in addressing the situation right now, [3:53] and we're committed to staying in that shape until we have everything addressed and fully wrapped up. [3:59] So I believe Mayor Pro Tem, Stretcher-Burks, would like to make a comment as well. [4:04] Thank you, Mayor. [4:10] I'll just stand close by, and you can. [4:12] Thank you, Mayor. [4:13] Amy Stretcher-Burks, Mayor Pro Tem. [4:15] I just want to say our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, [4:18] and everyone impacted by this tragic incident. [4:21] We're also praying for law enforcement officers, first responders, [4:24] and the surgical teams working tirelessly to protect lives and provide care during this difficult time. [4:30] Please pray for Midland. [4:31] Most importantly, please pray for those impacted. [4:33] Thank you, Mayor. [4:34] And so we want to close. [4:36] We will take a few questions from the media that's here, [4:38] but I first of all want to say our community needs to pull together and respond to these things, [4:43] and I know some of that's already taking place, so we say thank you to those who are praying, [4:47] those who are willing to give and who are willing to participate and help as this continues to play out. [4:55] We don't have any confirmed details on the suspect at this time. [4:59] We don't have any confirmed details on the person who was confirmed to be killed by this individual. [5:11] We also don't have any confirmed details about any of the other victims that are in the hospital, [5:15] but we will be continuing to follow up. [5:17] We have a geographic perimeter system that we are able to specifically identify cell phones [5:35] that are in the geographic perimeter that we're trying to close down. [5:38] So those people within that geographic perimeter received that text message to stay in place [5:42] and not to get out and drive around. [5:44] The rest of the community should have received just a notification of the incident and keeping them updated. [5:53] At this time, there's only one known suspect. [5:54] He is contained. [6:07] I don't have a specific timeline. [6:09] Some of those details and some of the early events are still being investigated. [6:15] He is detained in Southwest Midland, 4,600 block of West Wall at this time. [6:26] Would you say it's a standoff? [6:29] Yes. [6:29] There's SWAT on the scene and there are multiple agencies responding. [6:33] The situation we believe to have started in Southeast Midland and progressed across South Midland. [6:50] PD was first dispatched at 8.03 and Fire Department was dispatched at 8.08 [6:57] and then we had all the other regional agencies responding in direct sequence after that. [7:09] We don't have all of those details confirmed at this time. [7:20] We do want to restate that Facebook and Instagram and other platforms have had national outages [7:25] and so there was a delay in being able to communicate some of those things as early as we would have liked. [7:30] So if you have questions and you're having trouble finding what you need, [7:33] we would direct you to the City of Midland Instagram and Facebook page but also to Twitter. [7:39] We've had greater success in getting those things transmitted quickly. [7:43] Do you notice there is any officers have any... [7:47] I'm not aware of any impact to officers at this time. [7:55] All right. [7:56] Thank you, Media, for being here and covering this. [7:58] We will have updates as we have more information. [8:00] Again, Midlanders, continue to pray for those that are impacted by this [8:04] and we will give you more information as we have it. [8:06] Thanks.